Semper Aliquid Veteris: Printed Sources for the History of the Ivory and Gold Coasts, 1500-1750

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Periodical article

Title:	Semper Aliquid Veteris: Printed Sources for the History of the Ivory and Gold Coasts, 1500-1750
Author:	Jones, Adam
Year:	1986
Periodical:	The Journal of African History
Volume:	27
Issue:	2
Pages:	215-235
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Ivory Coast - Côte d'Ivoire Ghana
Subjects:	historical sources history 1500-1599 1600-1699 1700-1799 History and Exploration Bibliography/Research
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/181134
Abstract:	Since completing his Ph. D. under John Fage in 1979 the author has been working on critical editions of German, Dutch and French sources for the 17th-century history of West Africa. Many of these have been used uncritically, especially in the last twenty years. In the author's view it is wrong to cite such sources at all until one has at least attempted to establish the relationships between them. If one compares the whole corpus, one discovers a host of plagiarisms and other forms of interborrowing. At least half of the Europeans who wrote about West Africa between 1500 and 1750 axe known to have read the works of other authors. Using two chronological lists of publications describing the Ivory and Gold Coasts in this period, the author seeks to show that only a few can be regarded as purely 'primary' sources - mostly the ones which are least often cited. Bibliogr., notes.